WASHINGTON D.C. – Today, Jeffrey Ashley was sworn in as the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Mission Director for the East Africa Regional Mission based in Nairobi, Kenya.  USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah presided at the event and administered the oath of office to Dr. Ashley. 

In this capacity, Dr. Ashley will oversee projects throughout East Africa, totaling approximately $71 million annually, in addition he will manage USAID’s work in Burundi, the Central African Republic, Djibouti, and Somalia. USAID’s East Africa Mission implements programs to strengthen food security, improve economic growth, prevent conflict, provide humanitarian assistance, and improve health systems, with a particular focus on fighting HIV/AIDS. The mission also provides legal, financial, procurement, and alliance-building support to 13 USAID missions and limited presence countries in the region.

Dr. Ashley comes to Nairobi from Kabul, Afghanistan, where he served as the Senior Deputy Mission Director. Since joining USAID, he has served as the USAID Mission Director in Yemen, the USAID Representative on the Kirkuk Provincial Reconstruction Team in Iraq from February 2008 to March 2009  and has worked at USAID missions in Indonesia, Angola, Cambodia, and Tanzania. He also worked on humanitarian aid missions with nongovernmental organizations in Latin America and Africa and as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay.

Dr. Ashley holds a doctorate in public health from the University of Texas, Texas Medical Center School of Public Health. He also has post-doctoral training in psychiatric epidemiology. He is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and Kiswahili and has knowledge of spoken German, Guarani, Khmer, Bahasa Indonesian, French, and Arabic.